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Escape From Cygnus Beta
Awaiting Rescue Native Village The natives of this world have, in their dense foliage covered world, constructed a rather impressive village. Huge Aztec-style temples rise out of the ground, hewn out of rock. The villagers bustle about, selling, trading and worshipping. All the architecture is very mechanically based. The temples resemble huge computer systems, with circuits carved out of rocks, and solid stone buttons inset into the walls. It is very obvious that this serves no real purpose and is more ornamentation than useful. Some of the more regal buildings feature huge rubies and other gems instead of stone buttons, with gold and bronze inlaid to create a circuit-like effect. To these people, anything mechanical is godlike. In the centre of the village, in front of the main temple is a huge spherical statue, also inlaid with jewels and precious metals to create an electronic-like effect, which has many offerings left at its feet, and natives praying at it. Statue In the middle of the village stands a huge statue. An oblong spheroid, it is completely covered in precious metals and jewels. Flowers adorn it, and natives sit at its base praying and leaving offerings. Intricate carvings are placed on its body, and it is clear it is a very sacred object The Native Village is actually a rather large affair, with huge stone temples carved into intricate circuit-aping designs, inlaid with jewels. But as large as the village is, it is still dwarfed by the trees. In the centre of the village, by the statue is Paradigm and Mishap. Paradigm is sitting in a large ornate stone chair, with a pile of growing jewelry and precious metals at the feet Paradigm sits back in his big chair. "You'll find a way Mishap, they are after all, /free/. Gantry may be slow, but he isn't stupid, he'll get a message out whatever happens. We just have to wait" "I just wish they'd hurry up" Mishap replies, fidgeting nervously. "It's all very well being fabulously wealthy, but I'd like to be alive to enjoy it." "Yes, well" Paradigm mutters. "You know what they say, if you need something done right, /don't/ get an Autobot to do it. They're probably still filling up their shuttle with unleaded energon. Still, if the Decepticons do get here first, I'm banking on them going straight to the ship. We'll have more time" Autobot Shuttle has arrived. Mishap says, "Oh, that's very encouraging. Die later rather than die now? I'm planning on not dying at all"" Paradigm smirks at Mishap whilst he watches the natives add more riches to the pile. "Mmm in your case Mishap, I'm not sure anyone would notice the change in state. But death isn't an option I am allowing for today, there are no errors in my calculations" From Autobot Shuttle , Kup checks his gear, "Alright - let's get out there and find our wayward mechs. Try and keep a low profile, burst communications only, and keep an ear out for anything unusual." there's a wry tone of humor at the last bit of advice. Mishap, on the other hand, is sitting on one of the stone steps at the foot of the throne. "That's what you always say" he replies despondantly, idly flipping a faceted red jem between his fingers. From Autobot Shuttle , Pile-Up oooo!s at the mention of the universal greeting, bouncing in his seat a little. Autobot Shuttle cruises down for a landing on the outskirts of the village (preferably in the trees - although only if there's a big enough clearing for the shuttle to fit without crushing any of the native habitat of course). The shuttle settles down gently, then begins venting steam and unsealing hatches in a standard post-landing procedure. Springer leaves the Autobot Shuttle . Paradigm weighs another of the gems in his own hand idly. "And when have I ever been wrong, Mishap?" He shades his optics as he watches the ship come down. "And unless I am mistaken, which is impossible, that is an Autobot ship." He pockets the gem into a side-compartment and radios into his hastily repaired radio. "Gantry, come in. The Autobots are here, make your way back" You send a radio message to Gantry: *Bzzt* Gantry, come in. The Autobots are here, make your way back Kup leaves the Autobot Shuttle . Pile-Up leaves the Autobot Shuttle . You receive a radio message from Gantry: Where the frak are you guys?! I have Decepticons crawling over in my direction as we speak! Mishap perks up. "Finally!" the minibot says, standing up and waving his arms. "Hey! Hey! Over here!" Paradigm frowns as he talks into his radio. "We have found.... refuge in a native village, down in the valley we passed when we made our rather undignified landing. Get here now, or we leave without you." He snaps his head up. "The Decepticons are here. We should gather up our things and leave immediately Springer heads over to Mishap and Paradigm, glancing around the village as he approaches. At the mention of Decepticons he hefts his weapons significantly. "Yeah, we heard you guys might have some problems. We were expecting a warmer reception." He shrugs easily. "But I'm not complaining. Are one of you guys Gantry?" Kup follows Springer not too far behind. He lets Springer do the talking as he starts to quietly check out the area for signs of Decepticons and other unfriendly things. Pile-Up steps down after Springer and Kup, skipping a little bit, keeping quiet though while Springer talks to the folks down and about. Well he's mostly quiet, he seems to be whistling Little Black Raincloud from Winny The Poo. "Decepticons? I knew it.. we'd better start loading up all of the.. all of /our/ stuff into the shuttle." Mishap looks around as if a power loader will mysteriously appear and haul away the treasures that the villagers have heaped up in front of them. "You don't have a forklift do you?" Paradigm scowls at Springer, as he rises from his chair, walking towards the group of Autobots, past all the natives who scurry about. "Sorry, we have spent a rather busy day getting shot at, its hard to be welcoming in those circumstances. And no, Gantry is back at our ship, he will make his own way here." He holds out a hand, with a rather plastic smile on his face. "Paradigm" Around the Autobots, the natives stare in wonder, whilst the largest of them, a fat man in a beard, wearing the garments of a high priest falls to his knees. "Truly today is the day of miracles!" He roars Pile-Up blinks at the fat guy, head tilting to one side before he strikes a pose. "Behold! I am Emperor Fabulous! And this is Fabulous the Second!" raising a hand puppet, "And this is... Really Interesting Guy..." another puppet popping up. Kup looks dourly over at Pile-Up, "Put those away right now before I put them away for you." he says gruffly, "He's no Emperor and we're no miracles..we're Cybertronians." he sighs and looks around, "Y'know First Contact has never been my thing - these guys don't look like they'd benefit from an energon goodie." Springer takes Paradigm's hand and shakes it firmly. "I'm Springer. This is Kup, and Pile-Up. And there's a couple more Autobots back on our ship, in case we need back-up." He nods his head towards the others as he introduces them. "So there are Decepticons here? Maybe you should tell us the story..." "I could do with an energon goodie though" Mishap says hopefully, wandering over to the other Aubotots with his arms full of valuables. "Or something more high grade? Energon with Soba additive preferably." Paradigm smirks at Kup's words, hands behind his back. "If you'd bothered to take a look around, you would notice that we are /not/ their first contact. Notice the archetecture style." He motions a hand at the temples. "Crude carvings of circuits and transmission arrays, hopelessly aping a technology too far in advance of their own to comprehend. Someone visited them a long time ago, and thus anything technological is immediately from heaven." He walks over to the statue. "This seems to be their main deity. A crude statue, cobbled together year after year, obviously copied from real equipment. A satellite, I'd imagine. Think about that. The flotsom and jetsom of one civilisation being the base for another" Pile-Up awwws at Kup, putting his puppets away, shoulders sagging. "Technically speaking though, life forms of a non-robotic type might do poorly with energon goodies. Seeing as they'd be attempting to eat concentraited radioactive solid fuel... but what do I know... Damnit Jim I'm a doctor not a physiologist!" Kup looks to Paradigm, "You make a point, but I'm willing to bet that til you and your friends crash landed here - they'd never seen anything else like us before so technically, this /is/ a frist contact as far as our civilizations are concerned." he nods to Pile Up after he gives his expert analysis, "That's what I just got done sayin' boyo." he then looks back to Springer, "Decepticons here, eh? Do we have a range on them, or should I radio back to the shuttle and try and get a fix on them?" Mishap looks disapointed that there's no energon goodie forthcoming, but he's used to being ignored. "Forget how far away they are, can't we just run away?" Paradigm shakes his head as Kup is talking. "No idea. We left Gantry back at our shuttle, so it is a firm bet they went there first, so we need to leave quickly. Can you have your men help Mishap with our stuff" he motions to Mishap who has his arms full of treasure "and we can lift off before they arrive." Springer eyes the valuables that Mishap is carrying and the others piled up around the throne. "Where'd all this stuff come from? It looks like the sort of stuff these natives might have made. You're not seriously gonna take it with us, are you? And before we talk about running away and leaving quickly, let's see what we're up against. Where's Gantry now? What's his radio frequency, I'll just call him myself..." Pile-Up looks now to Paradigm, and then Mishap, then down at the natives, keeping quiet for now... waiting the perfect moment to unleash a torrent of teevee. Paradigm smiles coldly, handing Springer a small chip with Gantry's frequency encoded on it. "No, these are trinkets that we ah, /liberated/ from the Decepticon prison. The natives were just helping us move it to somewhere safe, that is all" "What? These?" Mishap looks down at the pile of jewels, golden-circuit jewlery and small statues that look exactly like the ones decorating every building in the village. "Yes... we got these from Cygnus Beta when we escaped. They're legitimate spoils of war. Part of the Decepticon War Chest. We had a lot of trouble getting them out of their vaults." As if to illustrate his point, one of the villagers walks up and, standing on tip-toes, helpfully adds another statue to Mishap's armful of loot. Kup looks over to Mishap, "Riiiiight. Another one like that, and I'll have to make sure my leg assemblies are ionized to repel the Igyak droppings coming outta your mouth." Mishap stares blankly at Kup. "Huh?" Springer watches dubiously. "I dunno Kup...I guess maybe the noblest thing to do might be to donate a bunch of this stuff to the natives, to show the Autobots' gratitude for helping out a couple of our brethren. What's this stuff going to do to help us? As long as it's out of the Decepticons' hands, I'd call it a win for our side." He takes a few steps away. "Now gimme a second while I just see what's keeping Gantry..." Pile-Up hops on his feet for a bit. "But whattabout alla pretty knick nacks? Can we buy 'em! Can we! Can We?!" folding his hands together, 'teeth' sliding into place to complete the grin. Paradigm smiles at Pile-Up as one would a small child. "Yes, quite..." he mutters, before turning to Springer. "No, I'm afraid that is quite out of the question. We don't know exactly all of what we liberated from the Decepticon prison, some of this stuff might be too technologically advanced for this race, or contain new metals. We must remove it all, or face further influencing their development as a species" Springer's expression hardens as he listens to his radio message. "Guys, we've got trouble. Gantry says there's Decepticons swarming around him, firebombing the jungle. He's not being fired upon yet, but he says it's only a matter of time before they do." Decepticon Arrival Blitzwing has arrived. Pile-Up ahhhhs at Paradigm's comment. "Yes... the prime directive. WE... Must... not let... our actions... interfere with their... natural evolution! We have... to... be... cautious... MISTER!" changing from one pose to the next as he talks. Mishap's expression turns panicked. "Maybe Gantry can catch us up? He's a big mech, he could probably fight them off, repair the shuttle...uhhh..." Mishap glances in the direction of the crashed shuttle they escaped on. "The big stupid lug.. why didn't he fix it quicker! He could have come with us!" Dreadwind has arrived. Meanwhile the natives have clustered around Pile-Up since the Junkion described himself as some sort of emperor, throwing flowers at his feet and mumbling prayers You receive a radio message from Gantry: You've got incoming Decepticon fliers, guys. Pile-Up kneels down before the people throwing flowers at him. "Pray not to me! For I am not one who can answer such requests! But I -DO- bring... Fruit By The Foot!" a panel in his arm, little boxes of processed sugar and fruit syrup raining down, in an area where it won't hit people. "Enjoy them! And know the words of greeting! Bah weep grannah weep nini-bong!" Kup looks over at Springer and deadpans, "You know, there are days when I wished to hell I never said that to Prime." The large bearded priest bangs a drum as processed fruit comes from the Junkion. "Praise be!" he roars! "The sacred words! Bah weel grannah weep nini-bong!" Springer looks back at Kup in astonishment. "-You- said that? We thought it was Wheelie!" You send a radio message to Gantry: I wasn't joking about leaving you Gantry. Get here now. That is all Paradigm looks shiftily around as time seems to be drawing tight. "For once in his miserable life, I agree with Mishap. We need to leave right /now/. Gantry has had exactly the same chance as the rest of us" "Forget the fruit by the foot! Decepticons! Decepticons! Am I the ONLY person that doesn't want to die today?" Mishap's so shaken he lets some of his treasures slip from his grasp. Kup nods, as if confessing a grave and terrible secret. "He was scared, and we were surrounded by Sharkticons - had to give him something to concentrate on." he looks to Paradigm, "You know, the shuttle we have isn't a cargo carrier and you guys look like you packed like femmes. I dunno if we'll be able to haul it all outta here." The roar of jet engines grows louder overhead until suddenly Blitzwing plunges out of the sky and hits the ground in the village square, his carbine in one hand and combat knife in the other. "All right, time for all you ape-god-worshipping primitive screwheads to sit up and take notice! Step away from the Autobots if you know what's good for you, or else you're gonna get a crash course in what we like to call 'collateral damage.'" From further up-valley, the thump-boom of explosions can be heard, and several moment later, the waft of smoke slithers its way into the village, wending around homes and tickling up into the nostrils of those sensitive to such things. Distant indeed, and markers of something else going on. Is it far enough to be inconsequential? NO! A trio of metal-skinned, monstrous avians split the sky in half as they soar overhead. Blitzwing splits away, and the other two swoop past. Fusillade remains in bomber mode, using the size of her two-toned orca patternedd alt mode to intimidate. Pile-Up points at Para and Mishap. "Lo! But steamy doom cannot be allowed befall these tiny and cute peoples! Defense to the ramparts! Explodey glory to the Junkions! ... And Autobots." Springer frowns at Paradigm. "Well in case you hadn't noticed, your chances were looking pretty slim until we got here. And that was because of the request for assistance that came from Gantry, if you want to get technical. So the way I see it, the least we can do is give him the same -" he cuts off as Decepticons make their entrance. "Look out! Decepticons!" Sixshot has arrived. Blitzwing kicks over the giant statue just to help make the point, too. Gantry has arrived. Following along behind Fusillade is an F-16 which doesn't appear to be doing anything, though there does seem to be a sense of dread or foreboding that travels along with it, almost like a cloud clinging to it's surfaces. The gloomy Death bird has arrived? The statue simply wobbles as Blitzwing kicks it. Neither do the locals scatter, they just stare at the Decepticons, dropping to their knees. The large, bearded high priest raises his arms. "This is the day our lore has fortold!" he roars. "The gods have returned from the skies! This is a great day! A day of feasting and celebration!" "Why didn't I just stay in my nice cozy cell?" moans Mishap, dropping his arm-load of treasure and moving behind the other Autobots. "Asides from the beatings, it wasn't all THAT bad." Pile-Up looks down at the fat dude. "No... It's presently a day of getting the heck under cover! Go! Go! Follow Emperor Fabulous!" transforming to his vehicle form, a number of ramps descending for the humanoids to mount motorcycle sized for cybertronians to ride, rather than human types. Paradigm unclips a blaster from his waist that looks like it has come from a dead guard, energon-smears over it and all. "We need to get to cover and the shuttle /immediately/ he snaps. "There's no point in making a fight of it here, it would be /suicide/." "Pile-Up! OVERDRIVE!" Pile-Up jumps forward, flipping and twisting until he forms a junk motorcycle with a jet engine and wings, engine firing to life. Blitzwing turns back to the statue as it doesn't fall over. He gives it a shove. It wobbles again. "They... have Weeble Technology? What's the story here?" Gantry is slowly rumbling through the jungle towards the village. His rugged off-road tires were meant for rolling over debris fields on Cybertron, and they make sharp work of the terrain here. Much of the jungle behind him is on fire thanks to Fusillade, but it's starting to spread in the direction that Gantry is not. Sixshot meanwhile is chasing after the Autobot. They won't make it here for a round or so. Springer snarls, "Blitzwing! Get your hands off of their holy relic. Decepticon punk!" But he's also smirking slightly, maybe he's been practicing that one. "You've probably already set their development as a species back a couple of centuries." He looks over at Paradigm. "And you! I told you, we're not backing down yet. And we're not leaving Gantry behind, either!" Banking again, Fusillade transforms, but doesn't land. Instead, she remains suspended on anti-gravs, wingblades bristline and rustling about with each movement. With toes pointed down as she hmmms to herself, she sizes up the situation. "Oh, what's this? A pile of loot, looted and piled by... Autobots?" She glances to the unfrightened natives, before Springer begins screaming. Hmmph. "You give the triple-changers too much credit." She flashes a wicked shark's smile. The sleek bomber rears up, wings collapsing onto hips even as the rear fuselage splits to form arms. The horizontal stabilizer slides up, the forward fuselage folds up accordian style, and Fusillade hops up on thrustered feet. "Their development clearly wasn't doing all that hot to begin with if we caught them worshipping a Junkion just now," sneers Blitzwing back to his opposite number. He raises his carbine and pops off several shots after Pile-Up. "You should be ashamed of yourself, aping your betters!" Blitzwing strikes Junk Rocketcycle with Assault Carbine (single shots). Paradigm grimaces at Springer's words. "I am just being /realistic/. I count at least four of them, that have /found/ us" he hisses. "We have you, your friends and us, who have already been in enough fights today, we cannot win another conflict." He scans the horizon, gun at the ready as the Decepticons close in. "And look, there is Gantry. If we had already got to the shuttle, we could be picking him up and lifting off right /now/" Junk Rocketcycle rocks as he is shot, still trying to usher up the Humanoids, stolen decepticon seeker wings lifting to fold up and provide protection. "C'mon little guys... bullets hurt..." Mishap unclips his own blaster almost in spite of himself, the same strange model as Paradigm's and just as obviously taken from their Decepticon gaolers. "Gantry! Over here!" he waves at the distant truck. "Hurry up before we all die!" Dreadwind flies along picking up on all the movement below in the village, "Great the Autobots are here as well, now it'll be us versus them, the jungle monsters and the squishy villagers, they're going to be awful to clean out of our foot joints, all that wet stuff and those tiny little bones." Dreadwind continues to circle the village while Fusillade considers her options after all what's the point in starting right off, we're all going to die horribly anyway so why rush into it. Shockwave has arrived. Fusillade was almost satisfied with watching the chaos unfold, admiring Blitzwing's initiative, and laughing long and hard about it. However, as the Decepticon styled weapons emerge, and the added insult of dismembered aircraft appears, she bristles possessively. Those units were likely to never grace the undeserving skies again. "Decepticons, take the Autobots /apart/!" she snarls out. Springer's optics widen as the shooting starts. "Here we go! Autobots, you know what to do!" He rushes over to put himself in a position to nobly intercept any shots at the groups of natives as they run for cover...except they're not running for cover, they're still bowing and worshipping. "Somebody get these guys out of here!" Some of the natives crowd around the Junk-Cycle, surrounding its wheels as they try to pin flowers to it. "Bah weep ninny bong!" they all chorus Junk Rocketcycle revs a bit, headlight blinking. "Mount the ramps and take to my seat, and I shall fly thee to a land of joy and prosperity! Just hurry up and get aboard!" hoping he doesn't get plinked at once more. Robomuppet Pile-Up says, "And don't you dare try to tell them I ain' a god right now. We'll explain that after we get them to safety!" F-16 Falcon sighs loudly at the snarled orders, not wanting to get bits of fleshy all over his feet Dreadwind wheels around and lines himself up for a strafing run, "Great i'm probably going to get shot down, crash and then those villagers are going to crawl all over me leaking their wet stuff and rusting me up. Does anyone realise just how bad a rust infection can get?" Paradigm dives behind the large carved stone chair, gun still in hand as he stares out at the scene, trying to draw a bead on one of the attackers. He's not waiting to fire yet, just to see which is the weakest or most vunerable Decepticon that he can strike at "I don't know what to do? What is it that we do? Run to the ship? No?" Mishap makes a plaintitave face at Paradigm, then turns to watch the other Autobots spring into heroic action and try to shepherd the primatives away from the chaos. "No.. Guess not" he sighs. "Okay, would all the aliens run away? Please? Shoo! Go on!" Some of the natives start making 'shoo' hand-gestures at Mishap, some ladies laying more bananas at his feet. "Praise the monkey-god!" they cry "Just use your muntions, Dreadwind, that's what they're for!" replies Blitzwing, thumbing his carbine from semi-auto to full-auto and spraying down Pile-Up (and his 'parish,' ugh) with gyroscopic torque-shells. Blitzwing misses Junk Rocketcycle with his Assault Carbine (burst fire) attack. Fusillade raises a hand to cup her chin thoughtfully as she hangs back. And then, she cracks open her chest, and fishes out a festively painted GATOR unit, before floating down to the natives. "Oh, hey there, aren't you cute, you little poo-smearing troglodytes? Got something for you. I too want to offer something..." She yanks the 'Remove before flight' pin and tag combo, and holds it out, making pointing gestures between the humanoids and the Autobots. A little child toddles up to Fusillade, hands outstretched for the magical gift. Can anyone save them? Skids wanders out of the shuttle, looking like he's just been woken up from a nap. He does not look happy about this. Red optics glower at the scene of chaos, and he raises his fists, roaring a pitiful little roar of anger at the sky. "SKIDS WAS SLEEPING!" he bellows. "Skids just want to sleep for FIVE megacycles on stupid shuttle, but NO, everyone have to go worshipping and shooting and ARRRGH." He points angrily at the natives. "Stupid squishies so loud with prayers!" He points at the Decepticons. "Stupid Descripticons so loud with guns and shooting!" He points at his fellow Autobots. "Stupid Autobots so loud with diplomercy! HNNH! SKIDS SMASH!" And, with all of his human child-like strength he proceeds to do so, slamming a fist into the side of the shuttle. A moment passes. Pain rolls over his robot face. "OWWWW! STUPID SHUTTLE HURT SKIDS!" The large looming familiar shape of the famous Decepticon cyclops flies into the area a bit late as he had to make certain the prison was properly re-secured. Punishment will come at a later time. Shockwave lands not far behind Fusillade and surveys the situation. F-16 Falcon dives in for its attack run, Dreadwind opens up with his weaponry striking some buildings disfiguring them before tracking towards their true target the silly little scrap pile who's playing waving games with the natives. "Your doom is now, lie down and accept the inevitable there is nothing else you can do except suffer longer than you need to." Dreadwind misses Mishap with its Thermal Melter attack. Crane continues to roll through the jungle, with Sixshot stalking him the whole way. "I think I lost him," the Autobot says to himself. Entering the remarkable village, it doesn't take him long to realize what's going on. "Oh for the... I leave you guys alone for just A FEW ASTROHOURS, and look what happens!" the crane chides Paradigm and Mishap as he transforms into robot mode, rifle already gripped in his hands. Fusillade refrains from ruffling the child's hair for fear of crushing his skull, and then stands back up as the child toddles off with the hefty munition. "Heh, that'll brighten someone's day." She mmms a bit to herself as she turns. "Well hello there, Shockwave. Looks like several of the guards didn't make it. The Autobots here appear to have... earned worship from the locals -- " She gestures to the pile of filthy lucre before ducking a stray laser shot, "And have taken their weapons and body parts." The high priest, The Blessed One, walks amongst the war of the gods, totally at ease. "The gods shower us with their holy blasts!" he cries. "Praise be to them! And praise be to the all-father, Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance!" At this name, all of the natives stop what they are doing, be it pinning flowers to the Junkion or carrying bananas, and drop to their knees. "And as the legend speaks, it is time to parlay with our lord!" The Blessed One walks to the statue, kneeling in reverance before it, and taking a medallian from his neck, plugs it into a slot in the base. The is a rumble. Shards of metal and jewels blast off from the statue as a gunmetal surface is exposed. Cables shoot out, and a large orb-like metal sphere rises from the ground as its coating falls away, lights flashing over its surface, lights flashing all over it. Large, pillar-like legs support the huge weight. It looms huge, gestalt-size over the battlefield, humming loudly. And then... it stops, focusing on Gantry. "Are you... *bzzt* ... a god?" it questions in a booming electronic voice. The statue cracks and splinters as huge metal legs shoot out of it. The plates of precious metal and jewels start to fall off to reveal a gunmetal grey shell underneath. Statue (Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance) Before you stands the native god, Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance. A huge looming spheroid device, it stands on huge stump-like legs, gun-metal grey and utterly brimming with weaponry. Small cracks run across its armour, with ancient paint markings illegible. Various targeting lights flash across its surface as it scans the area for threats. Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance Dreadwind's blast would have taken Mishap's head clean off.. if the cowardly Autobot hadn't already taken his advice and thrown himself flat on the ground, inadvertantly knocking over the humans that were waving at him as well and sparing them all from the Decepticon's attack. "I'd prefer not to suffer at all!" he replies. "I have a very low pain threshold. Hardly a threshold at all really. Gantry! Help!" Mishap stays prone as the earth begins to shake, a forcefield suddenly shimmering into existance around his prone form. Mishap successfully activates a powerful protective forcefield, shielding him from the next attack. Fusillade's optics widen behind her visor. "Huh. That's... new." "NNNNRRR!" Skids groans, clamping his hands over his ears. He shoots a withering look at the gigantic robot. "Stupid GIANT ROBOT is the LOUDEST one of all!" he complains, stamping a foot in rage. He looks like he's about to shout something else, but he quickly thinks better of it and walks towards the giant machine. "YES!" he calls. "SKIDS IS GOD!" he continues. "SKIDS IS BIGGEST GOD OF ALL! AND SKIDS SAY... /SHUT!/ /UP!/" Gantry, still nervous at the prospect of battling Decepticons again, gingerly takes aim at Dreadwind. "I've got your back, Mishap!" he calls out, rushing forward to protect his friend and comrade. He doesn't make it very far, however, as the alien priest begins shouting something incoherent and all the villagers fall to their knees. "What?" he stammers, turning towards the rumble. Shards of gems and metal fly out, with a jagged piece nearly clipping Gantry's shoulder. Gantry stumbles backwards, tripping and landing on his fear. His rifle goes sprawling as he stares up at the massive monster. "Wh-what?" he says, trying to decipher all this. The electronic tone in the voice is unmistakable, but these natives are just primitive little aliens! "I'm no God," Gantry protests. "Whoah," says Blitzwing. "Wasn't expecting one of those." He leans over to explain to Dreadwind, "Walking Eye." Cyclonus has arrived. The gigantic machine slowly continues to rise out of the ground on its pillar-like legs, each one thick. The surface bristles with weaponry, missiles and lasers sliding out of its ovoid mass. It considers Gantry's answer slowly, humming away to itself, the lights flickering across its surface. Suddenly the lights dim, and then flare into bright red life. "Answer... *bbzt* unacceptable". It intones. "Prepare for total war mode." More weapons slide out, and... THOOM. A huge blast eminates from the central cannon, a bright violet in hue, the heat incredible as it pulses towards Gantry Statue strikes Gantry with cannon. Gantry falls to the ground unconscious. F-16 Falcon picks up the movement from the supposed statue, oddly enough distracting him from continuing his atttack on the cowering Mishap, "See i told you there were monsters hiding and waiting for us, i'm sure our weapons will just bounce harmelessly off of it too. Probably the only thing we could do is try to trip it up and get squashed flat in the process, i just knew we were all going to be destroyed." Soundwave has arrived. "Death rays," explains Blitzwing to Shockwave, pointing at it with his K-Bar. "That's pretty standard on your typical Walking Eye." Suddenly there is a roar of wind and a roar of engines as Cyclonus transforms into his massive spaceship mode and flies upward. Skids is still walking towards the huge machine, and seems to be about to issure more godly edicts. Then the cannon blast sizzles right past his head, and he pauses, finger upraised and mouth open. Aftew a few moments, he very slowly lowers his hand, closes his mouth, and begins to sidle towards the nearest building for cover. "Maybe... Maybe Skids just wait here..." he mutters. Everyone else had apparently arrived here before he did, though Sixshot wasn't disappointed by this. He'd been tracking his prey with the intention of later killing him when he had figured out what exactly was going on-- but just when he thought he had some inclinging...There were walking statues, squawking Autobots, some talk about Gods and the humanoids chanting nonsensical babble. To say the least, this left him no closer to his goal. "When in doubt..." He muttered from the jungle border, "just kill it." And then Gantry got cannoned. "..." Well damn. From high in the sky and behind the Decepticons gathered below there is the sound of two high powered engines screaming toward them which, truth be told, is pretty standard for Cyclonus. The huge Cybertronian spaceship dives lower and flies toward the gathered Decepticons before it flies up and transforms into the prong headed warrior Cyclonus. He glances toward the giant Walking Eye with a calculating look before he turns to look at Blitzwing and address him in a sharp tone. "Blitzwing! What is the situation here?" With a smooth and fluid movement Cyclonus transforms into his looming robot mode. "Unacceptable?" Gantry snorts, annoyed. He rolls over onto his front and starts to get up. "What in the blazes /are/ you?" The Autobot is standing and fighting when it happens, as all good Autobots should go when it's their time. Gantry raises his rifle as the thing announces that it's war mode. He takes that as a definite sign that this thing, whatever it is, needs to be put down and put down hard. But before he gets the shot off, the creature (Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance, that alien called it) strikes first, firing a cannon. The bright light hits Gantry, melting through his chest armour and bursting out through his back, evaporating most of his midsection. Gantry falls to the ground with smoke drifting from both sides of the wound. His right leg, blown clear off, skids across the ground before it comes to a rest in Sixshot's general vicinity. Paradigm stares impassionately as he watches the gigantic war machine instantly end Gantry's life, as he races from his hiding place towards Mishap. "Well now" he utters, optics trying to rationalise and take in what he sees. "We definately can't leave yet, that thing could easily swat down a shuttle. If only we'd left earlier like /I/ suggested" Paradigm says, "Gosh Blitzwing, I hope it doesn't remember how you kept kicking it :)" Springer watches the statue clobber Gantry in disbelief, then gives the natives he was trying to protect an odd look. "Oh, that's just great. And here -we- were worried about -you guys-?" He walks cautiously over to Gantry (or at least the majority of him) and stops when he's close enough to grab the larger Autobot. Then he turns and addresses the statue. "He may not be a god...but the rest of us are!! I'm Springer, the god of...of Spring! And harvests, and nature's renewal!" "Gantry?" Mishap says, still face down on the ground. "Gantry?" he repeats, looking up just in time to see his fellow escapee get destroyed by a shockingly powerful blast from the idol. "Oh.... CRAP." He looks up at Paradigm as he races over. "What do we do NOW?" Skids replies, from his hiding place. "Skids have theory on what we do now. Skids theory say we run in direction AWAY from angry robot death machine." A small blue tape deck flies out of Cyclonus's cockpit just as he transforms and expands into the imposing form of Soundwave, whose feet slam into the ground. He stares silently at the walking death ray, formulating theories but making no hostile actions. Fusillade cants her head to the side as the purple and blue quotient increases dramatically. If this had been the Lowry Assay, it'd mean the scene was becoming distinctly more proteinaceous! Such as it is, she look mildly disinterested as Cyclonus queries Blitzwing for a sitrep. She pays just enough attention on the weapon to preserve her own well-being. F-16 Falcon watches the swift destruction from the powerful war weapon and starts to circle it at what he considers to be a safe distance, well as safe as anyone still alive can be anyway, "Hmmph he's got it easy being annihilated so quickly, his suffering is over while ours still drags on, and on. That thing is probably going to start dissecting us next." Sixshot wasn't averse to a challenge, but neither was he plumb stupid. He let Springer run out, his back quite happily placed to him as he thought to help out the fallen Autobot. He wasn't sure how much good that'd do right then, but it was an oppourtinity. He stayed a back-blasting response by waiting to see if the statue'd do his job for him. Cyclonus nods in answer to Blitzwing as he turns to look first at Soundwave as the Decepticon communications export and infilitrator touches down and then toward Fusillade. "Has there been any Decepticon assualts mounted on the creature?" Fusillade says, "Nope." "Trying not to touch it since it's just shooting Autobots so far," Blitzwing explains. Fusillade glances up at the commentary from Dreadwind, and then smirks faintly. Cyclonus nods as he turns to regard the statue again as he listens to Blitzwing's words. "As the weapon is not a threat to us and -is- a threat to the Autobots we should withdrawn from sight and let it do our work for us." He casts his eyes over Blitzwing and Razorclaw as he speaks. "A small detachment can remain behind to dipose of any Autobots left." Shockwave observes the Statue incinerate the Autobot. "Fascinating technology. Not anything I have not seen before or can reproduce but I am very curious as to it's inner workings. "Try to not damage the statue too much. I want to see how it actually works. Only return fire if directly attacked." //I might learn interesting thing from it and increase my own power in the process.// Having vapourised most of Gantry, the machine then stays still, power whining in its circuits as it builds its levels up again. Then with a sudden thunder the legs start to move, crashing over the ruins of its shell, the main body rotating, scanning. Then with another THOOOM an ultraviolet energy sphere blasts from it, moving outwards at an extreme velocity, sweeping over everyone and everything Statue strikes you with area_ranged for 7 points of damage. Statue unleashes its area_ranged attack on Soundwave, Skids, Mishap, Springer, Paradigm, Blitzwing, Cyclonus, Sixshot, Fusillade and Shockwave, striking Blitzwing, Springer, Skids, Paradigm and Fusillade. "Good plan," Blitzwing replies to Cyclonus, hiding his eyes as the searing ultraviolet light washes over everything. "Let's get out of here before it goes after us with its death ray." Soundwave stares at Fusillade and Blitzwing. "Are you certain? No hostile actions towards the device whatsoever? And what of the primitive indigenous species? What is their relation to--" He's cut off as the device unleashes an energy wave, but Soundwave manages to dodge it by ducking behind a building that looks very much like an overly decorated computer mainframe. Once more, Mishap survives by being flat on his belly in the dirt. Cowardice pays off again. "That's the first smart thing I've heard anyone say today" he says, raising his head and gesturing at Skids. "He may sound stupid but he's not dumb.. let's get out of here!" It was a nobrainer, Springer was infront of the statue, he was behind Springer...said weapon started laying into the surroundings, the six-changer made himself scarce. He felt the heat from the jungle vaporizing just behind him, as he ducked deeper into the grown moving where he felt the heat the least. His senses were heightened to their peak, using his animal 'instinct' to lead him away. He'd circle back towards the village however. "Oh, what the..." Paradigm is blasted backwards by the wave of energy, landing awkwardly on his back as he staggers to his feet. "Mishap" he grunts. "We should probably find cover and wait for the Decepticons to terminate this device. And I /SAID/ there's no way this machine isn't going to vapourise our ship on lift-off. That thing has planetary defenses, you saw what it did to Gantry!" Skids, despite his awesome hiding place behind the Space Primitive Hot Dog Stand, is struck by the machine's aerial assault. This is not to say that the Space Primitive Hot Dog stand didn't HELP; it did absorb some of the punishment before being completely vaporised, after all. The faint smell of space pig entrails fills the air, and Skids gets to his feet. "SKIDS HATES SPACE PIGS!" he roars, levelling his arms at the giant machine-god. "Skids DESTROY stupid machine! RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Skids strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Disruptor. F-16 Falcon says, "Oh we can run alright but it'll hunt us down, we'll live our last moments cowering in fear waiting in the darkness for its approach before it finally puts us out of our miser..." Dreadwind's comment is cut off as he spies the wave of destruction sweeping outwards and kicks in his afterburners rapidly heading skywards in a desperate attempt to escape, which surprisingly, especially to him he does. "What happened to Skids?" wonders Blitzwing of Shockwave as he falls back and lays down suppressing fire to cover their retreat. "Did Octane drop him on his head?" Blitzwing strikes Skids with Assault Carbine (single shots). Cyclonus leaps backward over the energy beam the creature unleashes, making a jet assisted backflip after becoming airborne, before landing in a crouch behind the line of smoldering trees, grass, and Decepticon(sorry Fusi and Blitz). He gets to his feet again before turning to look at Shockwave and pointing at him. "The statue will be neutralized: it has attacked us and we -will- respond in kind, Shockwave. Transform and commence firing upon the weapon." He turns to face the rest of the combat ready Decepticons. "I doubt the Autobots will be foolish enough to fire on us as we attempt to destroy their own opponent, but if one does, you have permission to retaillate. Decepticons, transform and attack!" Springer braces himself and throws up a hand to cover his optics as the energy wave sweeps over him. He shudders slightly, and emits sparks as a few minor systems go momentarily offline. "Yeah...yeah, getting out of here is starting to sound like a really good idea!" He reaches down and grabs Gantry and then starts dragging him off towards the edge of the village. "Somebody give me a hand with this guy!" Soundwave leans around the building he's using as cover, leveling his concussion rifle at the Walking Eye. "Skids? I do not sense the presence of Skids," Soundwave emits, as he snaps off shots. "However, Grimlock's thought patterns have been detected in the area." Pew pew pew. "It is strange... they are... different, somehow." Pew! The war machine falls silent again, small chinks appearing on its armour as it is fired at. "*bzzt* assessing threat..." it intones loudly, bright red searchbeams scouring over the village, which is now devoid of villagers who have scattered into the trees. "Neutralise and terminate. None shall leave" The top rotates, lifting slightly and out come a flurry of missiles, which momentarily turn the air black with their number. Statue strikes you with area_melee for 14 points of damage. Statue unleashes its area_melee attack on Soundwave, Skids, Mishap, Springer, Paradigm, Blitzwing, Cyclonus, Sixshot, Dreadwind and Shockwave, striking Skids, Cyclonus, Dreadwind, Mishap, Paradigm and Shockwave. Soundwave, so you know, doesn't have a line-of-sight to Skids, due to intervening terrain. Soundwave strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Loud Crack. Cyclonus goes airborne just as the missiles fire and even as he spins to evade them he can't manage them all and some strike his body causing a fair amount of damage to his body. He reorients himself quickly, however, and flies straight on toward the statue before opening up with a barrage of laser fire as he zooms past. Cyclonus strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Laser. Quickswitch has arrived. "Grimlock? Maybe he's napping in the shuttle." Blitzwing runs straight for the Walking Eye, fires his bootjets and leaps on top of it with a berserker yell, stabbing it with his K-Bar and trying to pry open its missile bay lid with his thermal blade. Blitzwing strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Thermal Blade. Shockwave watches the statue unleash it's attack and hitting a few Decepticons along with the Autobots and the second attack strikes him as well. "Understood Cyclonus." The Decepticon commander leaps up in the air and transforms into his space-gun mode in order to open fire on the thing. With the traditional sound, Shockwave transforms into a giant space-gun. Shockwave strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Ultraviolet Blast. Skids is struck by a missile and flung backwards into yet another building, which... well, let's face it. A stone building on a primitive alien planet is actually MORE sturdily-built than Skids. The building is fine. Skids is... sparking and smoking. He manages to pry himself off the building, and murder flares in his optics. "Skids... not like... missiles," he mutters, raising his arms again. "Skids is the SMARTEST one there is!" he bellows defiantly. "Skids NOT get destroyed by stupid cargo cult deity!" Electricity flares along his left arm, up through the twin prongs of that gun, then lances through the air towards the machine. Skids strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Electricity. Mishap's puny forcefield is no match for the giant orb of death's missiles, the minibot flying into the air as an explosion erupts beside him. "Ow ow ow!" he cries as he crashes to the earth next to Paradigm. "Next time, when you suggest breaking out of a maximum security prison, remind me to say no. Forget the shuttle, can't we run away on foot? Or wheel? Just.. away!" With no futher option, Mishap aims his stolen handgun at the defense bot and fires, under no illusions that it will do much good. Mishap strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with laser. Paradigm grabs Mishap by the neck to try to roughly drag him to his feet. "That is an option, but do you /really/ trust them to defeat this thing? No, we stand a better chance if we stand together than alone." He carefully aims his cylindrical weapon and opens fire on the robot You strike Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with disruptor. Gantry continues to rest on the ground on his front. His right leg has been blown off, and most of his torso is missing. As Springer grabs him, his shoulder crumbles into dust, leaving Springer with nothing to grab. It's quite clear at tis point that there's nothing that can be done for him. Having succesfully avoided the first attack Dreadwind almost has a cheery thought, but he should have known better for no sooner that the emotion attempts to occur then a missile blasts his tailwing, "Grahh! Stupid ball of death is going to kill us all well if i'm going to suffer like this it's going to get a taste of the same. Stupid thing will probably just maim me anyway and let me live out a full and lingering life." With that he dives at the ball both wing missiles detatch and speed towards their target. Dreadwind misses Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with its Twin Missile attack. First an energy wave, then several missiles...what kind of village was this?! Sixshot had had enough, and though he wanted to tear into the Autobots more than the alien weapon, there were orders even he couldn't shirk. Springer and the fallen Autobot were left to the side, not forgotten-- if they were still around after this, he'd be back for them. A large roar and a large tank pulled through out onto the cratered village earth, and charged towards the statue, mounted weapons opening up to send a blitzing array towards the statue. Crumpling and folding inwards, Sixshot transforms into a compact ramming tank with paired guns. Sixshot strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Concussion Blasters. Elita One has arrived. What was to be a routine hunting mission seems to have gone horribly awry. The Predacon Razorclaw had been lurking in the shadows for some time now -- some may call it napping, or lazing about. He prefers to think of it as 'strategizing.' And he most certainly is. For all the Predacon Commander may seem inert for the long span of time in which everything has gone to hell, he's simply been -assessing- the situation, staring straight at that spherical horrific mass of death and the Decepticons and Autobots surrounding it with a thoughtful, glowing red gaze. After a time, as Cyclonus blares out his orders, Razorclaw comes to a conclusion: "... hrrr... this is going to be troublesome." Still, bothersome as it may be, orders are orders. So, with this grumbling observance complete, the Predacon -leaps- outward, keeping his distance from the statue as he unleashes a short volley of concussive shells upon the monstrosity, the blasters on his shoulders flaring with every shot. Razorclaw strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Concussion Blasters . Soundwave ducks behind his cover again as missiles explode against it. "Negative, Blitzwing. Grimlock's thoughtwave patterns indicate he is conscious." He tilts his head, however, as he listens carefully to something. If he could look baffled, he would--his telepathy isn't showing that Skids is here, but his hearing is telling him differently! Soundwave feels suitably annoyed at this. He greatly prefers when what his senses are telling corroborate one another. His puzzlement prevents him from firing this round. Springer stumbles back as Gantry comes apart in his hand. He looks down solemnly at the Autobot as the truth dawns on him. "Sorry Gantry...guess we made this whole trip for nothing." He shoots a quick "yeah I'm talking to you" glare at Mishap and Paradigm. Then he points his rifle at the huge idol and adds his firepower to the others'. Springer strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with laser. An animation error has omitted the other Sixchanger until now. Quickswitch appears, hoisting a pair of large, red blasters at the weapon, along the other side of it--unaware of Sixshot yet--the yellow, expressive face turning grim--as he opens fire upon the metal god, the same utilitarian grey color that he is. An odd, very odd thing, to notice... Blitzwing hangs on with his thermal blade sunk into the Walking Eye's armor and stabs it repeatedly with his combat knife. "Oh, yeah? Hey, Soundwave, tell you what, let's discuss this electromagnetic anomaly later, huh?" Blitzwing misses Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with his Still More Stabbing attack. "Oh alright" Mishap says as he's hauled to his feet. "But if we all get killed, don't say I didn't warn you." He takes aim with his pistol again, wishing that his forcefield was still working as he lets off a paltry shot. Mishap strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with disruptor. Cyclonus curves sharply to the right as his lasers pepper the top of the statue, jinking himself left and right to avoid and potential incoming fire that may result, before zooming upward nthen diving down again to fly toward the statue from the side. He flips himself right side up as, to those with capacity to hear, the quiet thrum of his weapons powering up forecasts his next attack which comes in the forms of two bright beams of plasma that stretch out toward the statue to make it hot and toasty. Cyclonus strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Plasma. At this point, as the lasers bounce off it, the war machine is looking rather dented and damaged. Lights flash angrily in patterns across its frame. "Threat level analysed, tactical weaponry to defcon omega". More weaponry powers up, as it starts to stalk across the village, a volley of lasers pouring from it, blasting huge crater-holes in everything it touches Statue unleashes its area_ranged attack on Soundwave, Skids, Mishap, Springer, Paradigm, Blitzwing, Cyclonus, Sixshot, Dreadwind, Shockwave and Quickswitch, striking Springer, Skids, Soundwave, Sixshot, Cyclonus, Dreadwind, Quickswitch, Mishap and Shockwave. Blitzwing forgot to refuel before he came on this mission, so he just dangles from the body of the Walking Eye and continues stabbing it with his K-Bar as this does not consume any energon to speak of. Fortunately this also means he's too close to its body to be hit by its lasers. Dreadwind peels away after his attack run, "Typical the thing isn't only large it's dextrous too, next we'll find it has optical sensors in the back of its head so we can't sneak up on it." Dreadwind transforms and floats in mid air sizing up the ball-o-doom trying to find someway to fight it that doesn't result in death, death or more death. It's just like the movies. That dramatic twist where one of the heroes, out of sight and out of mind, dramatically enters in the hopes of turning the tide in their allies' favor. This twist is heralded, of course, by building noise: Instead of the typical, cliche musical sting it's the muffled roar of engines, growing louder and louder -- and the sound of lasers. The instantly recognizable shape of Elita One's car mode is speeding on top of one of the ancient temples, shooting any stone outcroppings that might block her way, giving herself a clear path to the war machine. The noise of her tires squealing on ancient rock cuts out as she flies over the edge -- hanging in mid-air for a moment, transforming as she soars, in the kind of dramatic overdone leap that only she and Optimus know how to do properly. In her hands -- the cannon. Midway through her arc toward the ground -- the statue-monster's head. Think of it like that one Big Black LP cover -- this is the part labeled 'let's go.' Elita One misses Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with her BPG attack. Space-Gun gets hit again by the statue the space-gun flies off and around to get a good vantage point. "This has gone on long enough. Time to finish this charade and get back to business." he says powering up his nuclear reactor...An eerie purple glow begins to pulse from the gunmetal grey barrel. "Who knows I might still be able to salvage some parts after this is done. Until then try and die efficiently." Shockwave strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with . Though individual blows might not do much to the massive machination, it seems that all the blows have begun to add up. Razorclaw lands across the ground with the skid of metal claws across the earthen ground. Glowing crimson optics snap upwards towards the statue as the Predacon comes to a stop, his feline body kept low to the ground. "... hrrnmph." His gaze shifts, back to the approaching Elita One. Another grunt escapes him. "Let's not -waste time-, then." And with that said, he simply -unloads- upon the thing with a full arsenal of concussive shots, unleashing an unholy volley of firepower upon it to get this bothersome situation done -- as quickly as possible. Razorclaw strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Concussion Blasters . Sixshot made no attempt to avoid the laser blasts, instead he plunged on ahead, picking up more speed if anything. The statue'd firepower struck, then either was absorbed or reflected by his heavy armour plating. The ambulatory portion of the weapon was where he aimed, planning to literally crash into it and maybe injure it enough so that it atleast stayed in one spot for everyone else to pick it apart. The huge war device swivels and rounds on Elita as a blast passes it. A hum builds up in it. "Threat pattern delta, prepare countermeasure" it emits, as another huge blast rocks it, this time from Shockwave in the opposite direction. The huge gestalt-sized entity swivels round, its main body glowing with power, a huge cannon snaking out of its underbelly. "Primary threat - annihilate" it intones. Statue strikes Space-Gun with cannon. Soundwave is surprised to feel a sharp pain in his back, and he looks behind himself to see that the satellite's lasers have sliced right through his cover, splitting the building in half. However, the laser's intensity was diminished trying to burn through it, so Soundwave only received a small black line of superficial damage across his back. Stooping down behind the stump of the building, Soundwave aims a palm over it at the satellite and unleashes a sonic boom. "Very well, Blitzwing," Soundwave replies after a moment. "You are correct that the satellite is our first priority." Soundwave strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Sonic BOOM!. Skids says, "Skids so tired of getting shot," then gets back to his feet. Again. Despite the fact that he's so tired of getting shot, he doesn't seem to be making any move to take evasive maneuvers. Fortunately, the statue fires at Shockwave this time, and Skids grunts. "Statue make good choice for once," he mutters. "But Skids shoot it again anyway." And hey, he does exactly that." Skids strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with disruptor. Mishap takes a moment to shake his sidearm, as if that will make it more effective, which allows the statue's weaponry to knock him off his feet. Again. "I can't take much more of this" he complains, wincing as he dusts himself off and takes another potshot. "A few more hits like that and I'll be only good for scrap." Mishap strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with pistol. Dreadwind spies Shockwave flying around, and calls out just as Shockwave gets blasted, "Damn it, now our leaders are failing as well, i said this day would come, i knew i shouldn't have listened to Scrapper and come on this awful mission in the first place." With that he draws his thermal melters and opens fire, "Puncture damn it you ball monster thing you!" Dreadwind strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Thermal Melter. "Mishap" Paradigm mutters. "You ARE only good for scrap." With that, he kneels, trying to find a good area to shoot this behemoth, firing off several laser volleys from a safe distance. "We should try aiming at its legs, that would be the weak point" Cyclonus is struck by one of the laser blasts as he makes his second flyby but the blast merely burns a portion of his armor and does not penetrate through. He dips down low, skimming the treeline, before getting some distance away from the statue before flying upward again. He flips onto his back as he reaches a certain altitude before flying straight down at the mobile weapons platform as Cyclonus unleashes his most powerful burst of energy directly at the top of the creature's body hoping to damage some vital systems. Cyclonus strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Cannon. Blitzwing jumps off of the spherical body as a barrage of energy blasts pound into it, swinging from leg to leg to avoid the incoming hits as if they were a jungle gym. He seizes the base of one leg in his arms and swings from it, kicking at the body. "Come on, Walking Eye, show us what you got!" Blitzwing strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Repeated Kicking. As Blitzwing hangs on its underbelly, cables start to snake out of the machine's surface, further distorting it. As parts are blasted off, a crack appears down the middle, widening. But it is not battle damage... slowly parts of the sphere pull back, to reveal a gigantic eye-like device. Missiles start to stream from the pupil, as its gaze sweeps across the battlefield, with an eye to destroy all it sees Statue strikes you with area_melee for 15 points of damage. Statue unleashes its area_melee attack on Soundwave, Skids, Mishap, Springer, Paradigm, Blitzwing, Cyclonus, Sixshot, Shockwave, Quickswitch and Elita One, striking Soundwave, Cyclonus, Mishap, Paradigm and Shockwave. "Woo yeah, now THAT'S a Walking Eye!" Blitzwing cheers, swinging to leap to one of the front legs with a mind to sink his thermal blade into the iris. Blitzwing misses Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with his Thermal Blade attack. Springer takes his share of the laser blasts like the macho Autobot that he is, then studies the statue, noticing how Blitzwing hasn't been electrocuted or crushed or jettisoned in any way. "Hey Blitz...sometimes you're not as dumb as you look!!" When the missiles start to fly, Springer dodges by leaping at the statue himself. He holds his sword over his head with both hands, in a reverse grip, ready to jam it into the statue for a makeshift handhold of his own. Springer strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with lead climbing with an edge. Blitzwing smashes at it but the ultra-hardened lens surface is meant to withstand micrometeorite strikes, and Blitzwing is unable to do more than scratch it. "Come on, you! Give it up!" The blast rocks Shockwave and sends him flying down towards the ground and gets nailed once again by a second blast. The space-gun re-transforms into his robot mode just in time to try and protect himself from the impact on the ground. The Decepticon shakes off the aftermath of the blast. "That was a painful way to test the theory but it still works. The thing classifies threats per damage inflicted. If we use saturation fire with low-grade weaponry we should be able to bring it down safely and quickly." Luckily, since Elita One's blast going awry altered her course, and since Shockwave's blast made the thing she was heading for stagger a bit, she landed rather uncomfortably on top of it, avoiding the missile assault. Seeing the cables and the eye come out, though, she decides to take another huge, stupid action-movie risk, and leaps off of the machine, to grab one of the cables and use it as a swing-line like Tarzan, headed feet-first toward the huge, exposed eye. Elita One strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Put Your Eye Out. "My legs are a bit weak as well" Mishap replies, just in time for a volley of missiles to strike the minibot square in the chest. "ARRRG" he cries, his armor now cracked and scorched. "I've just had a great idea!" he says, leaping to his feet and transforming painfully. "I'll go hide in the shuttle, you come get me when you're done shooting it!" And with that the tec-bike revs its engines and carreens for the Autobot shuttle. With the traditional sound, the space-gun unfolds into Shockwave's robot mode. With cowardly speed, Mishap's body twists and compacts into the form of a futuristic Tec-Bike. Mishap begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Fusillade, A Freakin' LION , Cyclonus, Shockwave, Autobot Shuttle . Leaping back as the statue comes to life once more, the lion Predacon takes a slow sweep of all of the Transformers assaulted by the thing's weaponry. Razorclaw gives a low snort, his claws dragging across the ground. A steady lowering of his body becomes a full-blown sprint as he -breaks- across the distance between himself and the spherical monster. He leaps at that moment, simply seeking to tear metal claws and fangs across the machine's explosed eye as Elita strikes it feet-first. "HrrraaaAAARRRGHH!!" Razorclaw strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Rending . Cyclonus is again the target of a barrage of missiles but his sharp descent and relative velocity means that most of the missiles miss him or detonate after he's past. One, however, manages to collide with him and knocks him off course just enough that he rams into the creature itself. Cyclonus strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Ram. As Elita dives towards the eye, the machine recoils with the boot-kick. As the foot connects with it however, another flurry of missiles pours out of it, the target being the femme commander herself! Statue strikes Elita One with missile. Sixshot pulled back into a tight spin, his wheels sending up a spray of dirt as he did. His strike wasn't enough to disorient it enough that it'smovement was hampered, but all the same, the damage being levied against it-- it was only a matter of time. He unfolded into his taller size, and leapt skyward, ignoring any fleeing cowardly Autobots as he did. His sights were set on the statue, levelling a fierce punch towards one of it's joints up close. Sixshot reverts with a swift series of twists into a formidable robot. Sixshot strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with punch. Soundwave stands up, gesturing towards Shockwave in the sky. Then he summons his emergency repair kit from subspace, a little metal lockbox full of doodads. As the machine lashes out once more by some miracle Dreadwind is ignored or not targeted, maybe depression is some sort of cloaking device? "Damn it, we're not going to stop this thing just look how much damage it's got and it's still going strong. This thing is going to be the ultimate suffering of us all." Punching one arm in the direction of the ball he opens fire with his blasters. Dreadwind strikes Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance with Dual wrist blasters. Statue is deactivated under the fierce barrage of attacks. The Orbital Defense system, God of this world, give a mighty electronic wail as too many attacks overload its circuitry, explosions rippling along the eye as it slowly crashes to the ground, gigantic wave after wave of blasts flowing along its surface as it tries to stand again, twitches, then lies still. And then a blast envelops the entire body as it self-destructs, leaving but a smouldering crater in its wake Mishap enters the Autobot Shuttle . "HAAaaaAARGH!" cries Elita One as the volley of missiles impacts her point blank, the explosion of the missiles not just hitting her but hitting each other as well causing her to fly backward. A trail of dark, toxic-looking smoke marks her path as she lands a distance from the statue, chest opened up like a flower blossom, spewing sparks and smoke, thighs and hips literally skeletal and steaming from the heat of armor and guts being blasted away. She bounces a few times, lands properly in a heap, and is still for a long moment. Cyclonus transforms after spinning away from the creature just before it explodes, the shockwave further propelling him away, before he transforms and recovers himself. He flies back to the Decepticon position before touching down and turning to look about him before sending a radio message. Blitzwing backflips away from the Walking Eye just in time to take hard cover behind a semi-ruined temple wall before it goes up in smoke. "Yeah! That's how you do it!" he cheers, retracting his thermal blade and pumping his fist in the air. "Man, I love those things." Paradigm stands up, brushing off his hands swiftly at a job well done... and then Elita bounces to the ground beside him in a heap. He stares down at her distainfully. "I suppose it was too much to hope for that /you/ would not still be around" Soundwave ducks back down as the device explodes, waves of heat and shrapnel flying overhead. He peeks back up when it's safe-- "Target has been utterly destroyed. Salvage unlikely. Satellite may have been programmed to self-detonate to prevent reverse engineering of advanced technology." Shockwave takes off and lands near Soundwave's position. The Decepticon commander is still smoking from the last two blasts he received. "Do your best with what is at hand Soundwave. We can finish the repairs back at NCC." Springer emerges from a smoking pile of rubble and debris. He dusts himself off a little, then comes over to stand next to Elita One. He eyes Paradigm. "You are not making friends here, you know that right?" He turns and looks at Gantry's remains. "Then again, maybe that's a good thing - for us." Luckily, though scorched, Elita One's arms are pretty much intact, and she uses them to push herself up -- only to see lower legs she recognizes. Her optics slowly turn upward as her head tilts back, and she meets the disdainful gaze of the wayward Autobot. "Paradigm," she grunts, sputtering a bit. "I'd say something pithy and withering," she wheezes, "but I'm kind of missing most of my legs." A furious spasm of the huge, hulking shoulders. The Sixchanger rolls away, coming up in the form of a tank, bearing the brunt of the shockwave that sends it sprawling. Another rapid rearrangement around the core of its form, and the Sixchanger is back in robot mode, looking... zenlike, as he heads over to the direction of his Autobot fellows. Dreadwind watches as his attack takes its toll on the damaged machine finally ending its rampage, a tiny spark of enjoyment stirs in his dull optics before quickly fading away, "We were so close to the end, but now we shall suffer, suffer so much more." Dreadwind is caught in a hail of debris and shrapnel damaging him further but he's too depressed at the moment to even notice. Soundwave kneels down, cracking open his emergency kit. Retrieving several metal plates and a plasma welder, he puts the plates up against the holes blasted into Shockwave and sets himself to welding them in place. It won't look very pretty but that's not the point. Soundwave jury-rigs Shockwave, taking a few moments to patch up some damage. Launching upwards, Sixshot in a quick shuffle of parts changes into the form of a sleek star fighter. Paradigm grins down at Elita, enjoying the femme commander's less than comfortable position. "Yes, I had noticed," he purrs, holding out a hand. "Come on, I'll /drag/ you back to the shuttle." He looks at Shockwave in the distance, the thought of trying to snipe the Decepticon running through his mind. But no, still that would be too risky. "We need to get to the shuttle before the Decepticons regroup" Sixshot remained high in the sky, partially thrown there, partially by choice once the keening had begun. As a machine, it became recognisable when something was about to go into its deaththrows. The explosive self-detonation on the other hand had been a little unexpected, and all along his starfighter form, there were signs of debris that had struck and not been entirely avoided. Blitzwing reloads his carbine with a fresh magazine. "Wow, I'm low on ammo," he remarks to himself, checking his remaining. "Didn't really expect a Walking Eye today." Elita whaps Paradigm's hand away. Apparently, she's still too proud for her own good. "I'll manage," she grunts as she forces herself upward, somehow exerting the ungodly amount of willpower necessary to stand up and walk when one's thighs are essentially reinforced space-metal sticks attached to various hydraulics. "Gggk," she sneers as she hobbles. "It figures that you'd be gone for eons and then show up the day I get blasted to hell by an eyeball that shoots missiles." Dreadwind hovers in mid air, "So are we going to go back to base now or are we going to wait till the Autobots are ready to attack us in our weakened state. They're geting ready to ambush us at any moment now with thousands of reinforcements, you know what they're like when they get all upset about something." Shockwave sits still while Soundwave managed to patch up the armor over the reactor. "This will have to do for now. Well done Soundwave." He stands up and gazes around the scene at the wreckage of the walking eye. "That encounter was highly improbable still the conclusion was close enough to it's envisionned probability." Quickswitch's optics find the star fighter in the distance, lingering there. One thing searing in his lasercore replaced with another bitter searing. Paradigm smirks down at Elita. "Yes, that is one of my talents" he mutters. "But your pride will be your downfall Elita, I offer my assitance out of practicality for our survival." His help spurned, he starts to run for the shuttle, as the village still continues to slowly burn around everyone. Paradigm begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Fusillade, Elita One, Quickswitch, A Freakin' LION , Soundwave, Cyclonus, Shockwave, Skids, Sixshot, Dreadwind, Blitzwing, Springer, Autobot Shuttle , Oh-Bit-Dee-Fhance. Blitzwing calls aside to Shockwave as the smoke starts to clear over the smoldering village and it becomes apparent that some of the Autobots are still standing, "I think I see an enemy medic! Taking it out!" Blitzwing used electricity. (&combatspam me=1 to stop this.) Blitzwing strikes you with Assault Carbine (burst fire) for 12 points of damage. You are very conscious that your life is in serious danger in this battle. Soundwave stands up once his job is done, and responds to Dreadwind, "Pursue the Autobots until they have fled." He does not do so himself, however, because he apparently has better things to do, such as talk to Shockwave. "Indeed. However, the sheer size of the galaxy and the vast number of uncharted worlds is precisely what makes such random encounters possible. We can only speculate how many other alien relics are lurking out in space, unknown to us." Sixshot doesn't linger up above for long, his thrusters fired and the starfighter dove. It may not be sporting, this, but it could still be fun. Targetting sighted on several Autobots who were taking their time in packing up, a grevious oversight he intended to correct, sending a helpful message to a certain feline. The weapons sitting on either side of his wings charged, the steady thrum as they gathered power lost beneath the whine of his engines. She should have accepted the help. Sixshot strikes Elita One with Concussion Blasters . Blitzwing leans against the half-smashed wall and squints down the iron sights of his gyro-blaster carbine, punching several shots into Paradigm's back as he makes good his escape. Dreadwind watches as one of the escapees/Autobots/whatever make a run for the shuttle not forgetting just why they came to this awful planet he takes a pot shot knowing that he'll probably miss anyway and end up hitting someone important like Cyclonus. Dreadwind used disruptor. (&combatspam me=1 to stop this.) Dreadwind strikes you with Single wrist blaster for 7 points of damage. You are very conscious that your life is in serious danger in this battle. Razorclaw's head rears up the moment that he receives a transmission. His gaze floats towards Sixshot, a simple grunt escaping him, before his focus returns to the retreating Autobots. His optics narrow, his body lowers... and then, he does as ordered in the most simple of forms: three rounds of concussive shells are unleashed from his shoulder-mounted blasters, aiming to peg Paradigm in the back over and over as he seeks to retreat. "... hrrmph. What a waste..." Razorclaw used gauss. (&combatspam me=1 to stop this.) A Freakin' LION strikes you with Concussion Blasters for 14 points of damage. Paradigm falls to the ground unconscious. Aaaaand... Paradigm does not manage to make it to the shuttle as he gets shot in the back and falls over. Go team Autobot! The blast from Sixshot leaves Elita down on one knee for a moment, a pair of fresh concussion-induced dents in her back. A long pause follows as the laser fire streaks around her, before she pushes herself back to her feet again -- and with the kind of ridiculous willpower that she always manages to summon up at the worst possible moments, she starts to run -- with half-skeletal legs! -- and makes a damn good pace of it too, heading toward where Paradigm just got dropped. Elita One begins retreating, leaving herself vulnerable to parting shots from Fusillade, A Freakin' LION , Cyclonus, Shockwave, Sixshot, Dreadwind, Autobot Shuttle . "Hostile's down!" shouts Blitzwing over the crackle and boom of the Decepticon fire. "We got another wounded attempting to retreat!" Blitzwing works to reload his magazine but he's all out of full mags and has to scrounge up some loose cartridges. Soundwave continues to have a rather elitist conversation with Shockwave. You'd need to have an INT and TECH rating of about 9 or higher to understand most of what they're saying. Springer looks up at the sky, then he reaches down and grabs Paradigm by the arms to drag him along towards the shuttle. He takes a firm grip on both arms this time, after learning his lesson with Gantry's corpse. Springer begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Elita One, Quickswitch, A Freakin' LION , Soundwave, Cyclonus, Shockwave, Skids, Sixshot, Dreadwind, Blitzwing, Autobot Shuttle , Paradigm. Dreadwind says, "Another Autobot falls and has his suffering end, and yet we go on, should we recyle the fallen one or let him be recovered so the other Autobots can see the full horror of what is to become of them?" "He's here..." Quickswitch murmurs to himself. Common sense would dictate that the battle is over, that the Autobots would be returning to the shuttle. He has no idea just who Paradigm is--only that this newcomer is down, Elita is nearly dead on her tentpoles, and Springer is nearby--that these acts of aggression, actions themselves for what they are, His bellow mingles with the boom and hideous roar of his engines as he's suddenly in the air, streaking toward the form of Sixshot and not retreating at all. In fact, it's a kamikaze line, "At least /finish/ the job!" his words twisted by something, said to no one in particular, as a raze of energy, cut short on accumulation, is released toward the other Sixchanger on reflex, almost before he can stop it--as if he would want to. And he does. Accelerated, Quickswitch transforms into a sub-orbital jet. Quickswitch misses Sixshot with his Photon Blaster attack. ....That was no way to sneak up on Sixshot, admittedly he was focused on the fleeing Autobot femme, but it was loud enough that his attentionw as momentarily diverted to notice he had company, and nearby. Quickswitch. It was easy to identify him now, and he laughed disparagingly at the other, the sound shaking his frames innards. He banked then rolled into a dive, avoiding the attack as he increased his speed to continue another strafing run as Elita One ran. "I think I will." The blasts fell like rain, tearing throug the ground where they struck as he left Quickswitch behind in his exhaust. Sixshot strikes Elita One with Concussion Blasters . Elita may have caught something about stellar evolution and how it influences galactic social evolution. It's a head-spinning dialogue. That is, how the growth, expansion, and eventual death of stars eventually influences which societies grow, become powerful, and conversely die out, or if they successfully move on to new stars. It's absolutely fascinating if you're Soundwave or Shockwave. Dreadwind hangs in the air seemingly no one wants to be near him or indeed tell him what to do so he just waits, "Maybe something good will happen and suffering will stop, but then it will all start again as we go on into the terrible darkness after we shut down." He spies Quickswitch making for Sixshot but stays out of it after all it's got nothing to do with him. Springer enters the Autobot Shuttle . Escape 'Autobot Shuttle ' ''The interior of the shuttle is very roomy. There is a highly technical cockpit that seats numerous bots at various stations, and a huge cargo area for additional troops or equipment. '' Mishap sits in the pilot's seat of the shuttle, looking hopelessly lost. "There's got to be a manual or something around here" he mutters to himself as he goes through the glovebox. Springer yanks Mishap out of the pilot's seat and drops him into the co-pilot seat next to it instead. "Excuse me." Springer then sits in the pilot's seat himself. Paradigm isn't doing much jumping about. He's on the floor, unconscious, the scally Outside, Dreadwind drifts over to the 'Wave support group meeting, surprisingly he actually understands a lot of it, "It's all very interesting but completely pointless, the Autobots are running away and the universe is doomed to extinction anyway. Oh it may take a while but it is inevitable." "I was just trying to get it started!" Mishap complains as he gets back on his feet, rubbing his arm. "Did we win?" Outside, "...leaving behind powerful weapons such as this, which are then misinterpreted by follow-up civilizations, such as this, as being deities," Soundwave concludes as he marches away from the burning tribal city. He stares upwards at Dreadwind for a moment, and would scowl if he could. "The exact nature and shape of the universe is still in dispute. I believe that, despite theories of a Big Rip or Heat Death, there is the possibility that the universe may yet endure." He doesn't like the possibility that he won't live forever. Outside, Utter, absolute horror rattles deep into the circuitry of the Autobot Sixchanger. What, in Primus' name, had Quickswitch been thinking... It was one thing to think it--he had charged the enemy, guns blazing, enraged and eager to answer the other Sixchanger's fire--cutting short on him, suddenly even as he charged... It was one thing to /think/ it, but he said, Primus, he had actually /said/ to Sixshot, and Sixshot had-- "NO!" he roars, firing on Sixshot's engines one second, then blazing beneath--and past, if possible--the second Sixchanger to the form of Elita One on the ground, focused on landing, without grace, snatching up the form of the femme with the momentum, and sprawling toward and into the shuttle as fast as he can. Outside, Quickswitch strikes Sixshot with Photon Blaster . Outside, Elita One is snatched up, whether she likes it or not -- "Dammit" -- flown into shuttle -- lands in heap -- survives without more damage -- except for getting knocked around by the sudden ram-like tackle-save. Elita One has arrived. Outside, Dreadwind nods as he lands alongside Soundwave and follows, "Yes it wouldn't surprise me if the universe suddenly decided to carry on regardless just to make our suffering last even longer than we could possibly imagine." Outside, Blitzwing calls across to the big blue & purple scientists, "Hey, we've got a live one here," in case they hadn't noticed Quickswitch is still moving around. Outside, Blitzwing misses Sub-Orbital Jet with his Assault Carbine (single shots) attack. Outside, Soundwave OOCly doesn't really want to kill off the Autobots, so he ICly doesn't care if they're still alive. "That's the spirit," he intones to Dreadwind. Outside, By making Elita his target, he had knowingly placed the Autobot's six-changer pet in a better position to fire at him. Sixshot thought this would be a worthwhile, all things considered. Still, the pain from the strike was enough to make the plane shudder as it was knocked off its trajectory as it spun wildly. It took him several moments to get back control, his internal repairs racing to right the damage so that it wouldn't hamper the Decepticon much at all. And when it did, Sixshot hissed deeply, a steely rasping sound that promised to bring a large measure of pain if he didn't retreat. He still had that promise to fufill, and whilst this wasn't the kind of circumstances he meant, he was willing to change it. Outside, Skids limps back towards the shuttle, still grumbling about his hatred of space pork Skids has arrived. Outside, Dreadwind stops in his tracks as Soundwave compliments him over something stunned he watches him leave, then he snaps to his senses, "Bah he was probably humouring me." He looks over to Blitzwing and ponders if he should bother helping or just let them get on with attaining the termination of hostilities. Outside, The freak'ss horror-driven trajectory causes Blitzwing's carbine to completely miss him as he impacts and tumbles to the ground in robot mode, reaching for the battered pink form of Elita and scooping her up with numb, shaking fingers. Sixshot abruptly forgotten, Quickswitch makes his way for the shuttle. Outside, Quickswitch begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Cyclonus, Sixshot, Autobot Shuttle . Outside, *snap-snap-snap* goes Blitzwing a last few times, but Quickswitch has powered out of sight. Now he knows how the Autobots feel when he retreats. "Looks clear." Outside, Dreadwind makes his decision as the final Autobots flee for the hills and he trudges off back towards the Decepticon shuttle, "I told them it was all pointless before we left, but they never listen, i don't know why i bother." Outside, Quickswitch springs up into his massive robot mode. Springer gets an evil look in his optics. "Skids, Paradigm over there took severe damage. You're pretty smart, why don't you see if you can reactivate him?" Skids grunts, then looks at Paradigm's mangled form. He snorts. "Hnnh. Him Paradigm look like robot hell," he comments. His left hand retracts into the arm, and a glowing medical scanner pops out a moment later. The glow dissipates, and Skids pokes the scanner into one of Paradigm's wounds. "Skids will check what wrong with him Paradigm. Skids is the smartest one there is." Skids pulls out a medical scanner and runs a check on Paradigm. Skids says, "Hnnnh." Skids removes the scanner from the wound. "Him Paradigm pretty messed up," Skids concludes. "Skids can fix though. Maybe." The scanner retracts, and is replaced by... a giant syringe. Skids moves the syringe to be aimed over Paradigm's spark casing. "Skids will jolt him Paradigm spark to reactivate. Later Skids repair him maybe." With that, he jams the huge needle straight into Paradigm's chest. Skids goes to work on Paradigm, bringing him back to consciousness. You slowly regain consciousness under the ministrations of Skids. Outside, The same reckless and calculated trajectory, rich in purpose toward the pink little glitch--why does he bother?!--and then that shivering stab of horror cycles back around to kick him in the aft--causes the Decepticon Sixchanger's fire to completely miss him. He darts up into the shuttle with Elita, not looking back. Zoomzoom. Quickswitch has arrived. Outside, Autobot Shuttle begins retreating, leaving itself vulnerable to parting shots from Cyclonus, Sixshot. Skids looks up at Quickswitch's arrival, then pulls the needle out of Paradigm's chest. "Him Paradigm back online," he announces proudly. "Skids truly am the smartest!" He sits back, exchanging the hypodermic for a hand again. "Skids wait a while before repairing him Paradigm. Danger probably past for him Paradigm life." Outside, Blitzwing can only wave goodbye to the Autobots. With his finger.